How my life has changed / How will my life change

30 Years of Information and Educational Change: How should our practice respond?

“You’d better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone, For the times they are a changin’” Bob Dylan

When my blog reached its first birthday in August 2005, I got to thinking about how dramatically the library and the classroom have changed for so many of us in the last couple of years.

Then I got to thinking about how incredibly dramatic the change has been since I first graduated library school in 1976 , and when I had to do that masters degree over again for my educational credential in 1988. While I learned programming the first time around and personal computer applications the second time around, the current rate of change has altered the landscape so dramatically I would not today be able to survive with those ancient library school skills.

Clearly, the changes occurring between 1976 and 1988, when the PC and automation were becoming ubiquitous in libraries, had nothing on the changes we were to see in the last five, no the last 2 years!

Retooling was essential for me. It is essential for the survival of the profession.

We cannot expect to assume a leadership role in information technology and instruction, we cannot claim any credibility with students, faculty, or administrators if we do not recognize and thoughtfully exploit the information and communication paradigm shifts of the past two years.

I attempted to chart the changes I’ve observed to help plan for the future. I invite you all to help me refine this chart.

How life has changed since I left library school

How should practice respond and change?

Things that have changed	When left library school preservice (1976/1988?)	2006/ 2007 School Year	Implications for Future? Learners, Educators, Schools? Library Profession?
Most used reference sources	Encyclopedias and almanacs, Readers’ Guide, CD-ROM Databases, books, magazines, newspapers	Wikipedia, Google, Ask.com, MapQuest, subscription databases, ebooks	Need to introduce a fuller information toolkit. Need to promote lesser known or used tools—subscription databases, alternate search tools, ebooks. Potential for an information underclass! Need to help students determine where to start. Need for high quality federated searching to cut through the noise? May need to promote the value of books for some projects. Top 25 2.0 Search Tools (Online Education Database) Streaming Media Need for pathfinders! As wikis? Can we push online reference widgets to learners?
How we most often communicate	Letters, phone calls, email through Pine and other text-based systems	Cell phones, texting, email, IM, Skype (VOIP), social networking (MySpace, Friendster, FaceBook, Elgg), telecommunications, blogs, wikis, Nings. Web goes two ways Pew Studies—students are online, students are bloggers, students are content creators! See my Networks:	Librarians need to communicate with users using emerging tools. Blended service and instruction. Two-way communications. Opportunities for interaction with parents. Geographic barriers removed. Learner-centered/learner empowered environment.
Service	Reference service at the desk, in-person reference interview, Mudge Guide to Reference Books	Students expect immediate interaction and 24/7 information service. Students expect independence in information access—on home PCs at any hour of day. Some libraries and states offer IM and email reference	Users expect information and services to be immediate. Promote/create real-time online service. Need for blended service in the form of Web sites, blogs, pathfinders customized to meet students’ information and developmental needs. New pathfinders in the form of wikis and blogs inspire feedback. Need for extended just-in-time, just-for-me guidance/intervention. Libraries should aim to be a window on students’ home desktops. Provide, or link to 24/7 sources. Virtual library as customized information landscape Can libraries widgetize services?
Options for student projects, learning	Student projects: term papers, Hypercard, dioramas, essays, speeches, debates, etc.	Term papers, essays, speeches, debates, etc. PowerPoint, websites, learning objects, podcasts, video editing, Internet2, wikis, blogs, digital storytelling, WebQuests, I2 and teleconferencing bring authors, experts, performances in and connect teachers and learners with remote partners. Learning can be face-to-face, online synchronous, asynchronous. Growth of distance learning options. Video sharing Students are film producers—YouTube, Google Video. In schools—severe PowerPoint overdose.	Librarians must partner with classroom teachers to create projects relevant to 21^st century learning using emerging tools for communication. What is the best communication tool for the project? How can we use these new tools for teaching, practicing, and reflecting on information fluency? Blogs and wikis help students track the research process? Rethinking PowerPoint Presentation Zen PowerPoint Extreme Makeover Cliff Atkinson: Beyond Bullets Tom Peters on Presentation Excellence Gettysburg Address PowerPoint VoiceThread GoogleDocs
What we know about how learners learn	Move away from fact memorization, right answers, textbook reliance, and reporting to constructivism. Move away from “frontal” teaching, group projects, inquiry, essential questions	Influence of brain research / cognitive science. Learning is: multidisciplinary, social, multi-intelligence (Gardner), potential for gaming/simulations, brain needs to “pattern”, every brain different, learning styles vary, importance of building on prior knowledge, application of knowledge, real world, growth of relevant service learning, learner-centered, community-centered, problem-based	How do we use what we know about learning to partner with teachers to create effective learning activities? What role will collaboratively created e-books, new media, a.i., Second Life, similations, and gaming play? How will we design learning environments that work, that engage? Coming of Age (Terry Freedman)
Finding out about books and other new materials?	Bestseller lists, recommendation lists from organizations, book review journals,	Amazon & other online booksellers, push technology suggestions, mega-bookstores, book trailers, book review blogs	Need new strategies to promote and solicit suggestions for materials. Interactive forms? Encourage student/teacher book blogging? Student-produced book trailers?
Understandings about intellectual property	Copyright laws, fair use	Copyright laws, Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines, Tassini decision Creative Common Licence, Open Source, copyright-friendly portals for sharing content	Need to teach new world of information ethics. Copyright options are expanding for creators. How do we behave responsibly? How to we ensure students know their options and can find copyright friendly materials when they create and share media? Is Fair Use shifting? Copyright Friendly Images and Sound Learn How to Use Copyright and Stay Legal in the K-12 Classroom (CyberPlayGround) Music Law Creative Commons’ Podcasting Legal Guide Lessig’s Free Culture Flash Presentation UNESCO’s Handbook on Copyright and Related Issues for Libraries Bloggers Beware Student Bloggers FAQ EFF Legal Guide for Bloggers Intellectual Property and Free Speech in the Online World White Stripes Creative Commons Video Boucher and Doolittle Introduce the FAIR USE Act of 2007**
Students and intellectual property / academic integrity	MLA (and other) books and handouts, teachers and librarians check for plagiarism by searching through print sources	Tools like turnitin, bibliographic format available on the Web, citation generators, Google as an originality check.	Need for instruction and guidelines in respecting intellectual property in a cut-and-paste, mash-up world. Need to define appropriate levels of collaboration. Copyright Friendly Images and Sound MSA 21st Century Information Fluency Project NoodleTools, Son of Citation Machine, BibMe
Evaluation	Resources limited. Evaluation simplified by formal, vetted publishing process. Print sources—books, magazines, journals, newspapers—well-know to teachers and librarians. Relatively easy assessment of credibility, authority, relevance, scope.	Resources vast—choices among formats explode. Multiple voices available. Anyone can author content. New challenges in assessing credibility and authority. Read/Write Web 2.0 facilitates immediate power of the citizen as author. No more black and white evaluation rules!	Need to teach about how to evaluate for particular information task. Notions of authority are shifting. Need to annotate to explain some information choices. How do we learn to evaluate blogs, wikis, shared video, podcasts, etc? MSA 21st Century Information Fluency Project Evaluating Blogs
Understandings about cataloging	Sears and LC Subject headings	Sears and LC, and access to computer cataloging services. Taxonomies vs. folksonomies Move from tree hierarchy to pile of leaves (Weinberger: Taxonomy and Tags, Everything is Miscellaneous) Meta--tagging, tags, folksonomies. Emerging strategies for tagging non-print media—images, film, music. Richness of hyperlinks	Need to rethink ineffective cataloging schemes to recognize power of keywords and tags that make sense to users. Cookery—India no longer plays!
How we get news	3 major news channels, newspapers, weekly news magazines	24-hour news, 100s of channels on television, websites, blogs, push news, access to global news sources for multiple perspectives, news portals gather content in varying formats	Need for pathfinders to lead learners to news sources they will need for particular projects. Need to help students set up information spaces, with feeds, to push news to themselves.
Standards	Information Power released in 1988—new focus on information literacy	IP2 released in 1998 ETS releases ICT Literacy Assessments, Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, ISTE’s NETS for Students, Teachers, Administrators, release of state and national content area standards	How do we use new tools to deliver both content and process standards? Draft Framework for ISTE NETS•S Refresh ISTE NETS Refresh 21st Century Readiness AASL Draft of 21st Century Standards
Intellectual freedom	Books have been challenged and sometimes banned from collections	Challenges of all sorts. DOPA threatens access to Web 2.0 tools, filters required for e-rate funding	Protecting student access to information more necessary and more complicated in a political environment motivated by fear. Is Google blocked? YouTube? Blogs?
What our collection looked/looks like	Books, magazines, filmstrips, cassette tapes, 16 mm movies, software on disk	Books, ebooks, streaming audio, streaming video, blogs, Webcasts, podcasts, wikibooks, open source, software & Web-based apps	Need to create signage, guides, pathfinders for new additions to “collection.” How will we lead students and teachers to them most effectively? Will our resources be largely wasted?
What our space looks like	Traditional shelves—books, magazines, videocassettes, reference workstations	Much of reference is moving online, video and audio streaming, still need for fiction and nonfiction	Increasing need for group, creative production space—iMovie, podcasting, blogging. Library as group planning/collaborating space. Library as performance, presentation space. Library as event-central, telecommunications, remote author/expert visit space. Library continues as study/reading/gathering/cultural space.
What we loan	Books, videocassettes, audiocassettes, magazines	Traditional items & ebooks, digital audio, laptops, memory sticks, digital cameras, etc.	Budgets and policies need to recognize students’ new needs for learning materials.
Need for retooling / How we retool	Every five years or so Professional journals, conferences	Frequent! Professional journals, conferences, virtual conferences, Webcasts, professional blogs, collaborating through professional wikis and nings.	Learning happens between annual conferences. Blogs publish professional news, new strategies before it can travel through traditional publishing process. (Essential strategies for keeping up!) Attend conferences without traveling—viewing keynotes online. Use tools like Hitchhikr, visit sources like EdTechTalk Models of student and teacher work at the Edublog Awards
Typical assessment	High stakes testing	High stakes testing + growing recognition of need for alternate, authentic project-based assessment	Need to move schools beyond knowledge needed to pass one or two high stakes tests. Students need to solve problems, make decisions, and communicate effectively with traditional and emerging tools.